Visible Connect Wednesday: Meet LitLab
This June, Visible proudly announced the second cohort of its annual Visible Connect Accelerator Program, which supports nonprofit organizations changing their communities using mobile technology. In partnership with Uncharted, Visible Connect awards each nonprofit in the accelerator a $15,000 financial grant and free mobile devices with one year of Visible service. Visible and Uncharted will work alongside these game-changing entrepreneurs to help them elevate their organizations and connect them with the resources, services, expertise, and relationships they need to accelerate their impact.
For the next two weeks, we’ll continue to introduce an inspiring nonprofit within our cohort, honing in on how they’re using mobile technology to create meaningful change.
Laura Gonzales Reed and Soham Bhatia are teammates at LitLab, which accelerates underserved children’s learning to narrow the opportunity gap. Their products revolutionize the way ELL families ensure their children’s academic and lifelong success. Laura is the CEO and co-founder of LitLab and Soham is LitLab’s business development and growth manager.
LitLab’s mission is to ensure all children are reading by the third grade. Why is this so pertinent to a student’s success?
Laura Gonzales Reed: If a student is not reading at grade level by the third grade, they are four times more likely to drop out of high school. And if that child comes from a low income family, they are 13 times more likely to drop out of high school. We created LitLab as a way to close that gap.
But you say this learning gap can emerge before a child enters school?
Laura Gonzales Reed: There is a difference in how a child from a higher income family experiences its earlier years compared to a child from a lower income family. For example: a four-year-old from a low income family hears 30 million fewer words by the time they’re four than children from middle or higher income families. We want to help parents and caregivers understand this learning gap starts early and educate them on how they can promote development on their own. Accessing preschool is a huge determinant in being ready for kindergarten, but many families can’t afford to be in that situation. We created LitLab to support parents who are serving as their children’s first teachers through reading books, engaging in activities, building social skills, and social emotional learning. We’ve pulled each of these touchpoints into our app and created a tool to engage parents around how to ensure their children are ready and successful in school.
Soham Bhatia: The communities we’re serving are some of the most impoverished and under-resourced. A lot of these parents see LitLab as a way to get their kids ready for school. It’s a free resource and parents leverage it. There’s no lack of motivation, just sometimes a lack of information and resources.
Families can use LitLab on their own, but how can educators can use the app?
Laura Gonzales Reed: We work primarily with Title 1 schools who serve 85 percent low income families and are required to have a family engagement strategy. It’s often this strategy that is the most complicated for schools to address. For example, some teachers may not have a way to communicate with families or parents of the students, so we’ve been able to develop LitLab as a free resource teachers can distribute. This allows the families to help support any learning and development goals the teacher has created at home. Kids spend 80 percent of their time outside of school, so if families could leverage even part of that time to focus on those goals, I think we can really move the needle.
How many languages is LitLab offered in?
Laura Gonzales Reed: Today, just Spanish and English. But we’d love to incorporate other languages in the future.
Could you share a LitLab success story?
Laura Gonzales Reed: We’ve heard from parents that they now feel good about giving a mobile device to their child because they are learning online. Whereas before, they might have felt guilty for letting their kids watch videos or play games. With LitLab, they can use their mobile device to promote healthy choices and see their child learning while having fun, which we feel really good about, too. As a mom, I love that we’re reducing ‘mom guilt.’
Soham Bhatia: The reason I joined LitLab is that education is a solution to some of the bigger problems we have in our society, such as homelessness and income inequality. If we can help tackle these issues early on, we won’t have to solve for them later. We truly have an opportunity to set every student up for success.
